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One Response to Q&A: what are the four kinds of tragedies by aristotle’s poetics?

P.O.U.M.

March 25, 2011 at 2:58 am

According to Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’ the four kinds of tragedies are: the complex (peplegmene), the pathetic (pathetike), the ethical (ethike), and the simple.

“In Poetics 18, four “kinds” [eide] of tragedy are identified in a passage that has long baffled interpreters with regard to how it is connected to the discussion in the rest of the Poetics (cf. Lucas 184-186):

There are four kinds [eide] of tragedy: the complex [peplegmene], depending entirely on reversal and recognition; the pathetic [pathetike]–such as the tragedies on Ajax and Ixion; the ethical [ethike]–such as the Phthiotides and the Peleus. The fourth kind is the simple . . . (1455b32-56a2)

Here the “simple” and “complex” kinds can only refer to the plot forms discussed back in Poetics 14.”